In a system implemented using a collection of non-heterogeneous virtual machines, there are often dependencies between the various VMs, which means that there should be a mechanism by which the VMs can manage their startup ordering such that dependencies are satisfied and each VM has what it needs to operate successfully. When the VMs scale by launching parallel identical instances of a given VM, those instances may be considered to be delivering a “grouped function” within the larger application framework. For example, there are cases in which a certain minimum number of such identical instances must be presented for the “grouped function” to actually be able to provide the shared service. Accordingly, a mechanism for allowing a “derived group state” to be created and shared would be useful in these instances.
Additionally, in connection with an application that includes functional components, or services, distributed across discrete VMs, there is currently no existing framework that aids in the coordination between functional components so that they may be controlled independently of the underlying VMs on which they run. Coordination is generally ad hoc in nature and is therefore subject to incomplete coverage.